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Page 26
either to reign long or to breed up an heir to the throne. Richard was a lover of men; to prove himself no woman, or perhaps in some deep and concealed desire for a heroic death that would glorify his name and bring him peace, Richard fought constantlyin tournaments, if a war was temporarily lacking. What was more, Richard had taken the Cross and would go on Crusade. It was very likely that the diseases of the Holy Land would kill him if the warriors of Saladin did not.
John withdrew himself from his father's war. When the time was ripe, he went to Richard, received his indulgent brother's kiss of peace, wrested from Richard the promise of vast territories, and turned on his father. He turned on his brother, too. When it transpired that neither disease nor war had destroyed Richard, John had conspired with the ancient enemy of his family, King Philip of France, to murder Richard or, failing that, keep him imprisoned for life. That, too, failed. John's mighty mother was still alive, and she so bedeviled the Pope and the Emperor of Germany, who held Richard prisoner, that they set a ransom for him. Then, by draining the lifeblood from England and her own territories in France, she had paid that ransom and procured her son's freedom.
Now, Salisbury thought, John is being blamed for that also. Perhaps John's actions were not all that they should have been with respect to his father and his brother, but the taxes and fines that had brought such misery to England were not John's fault. Richard's Crusade and Richard's ransom had impoverished England. Richard's wars against Philip after he was freed had also cost money, and those wars were more often started by Richard than by Philip. On the other hand, it was Philip who had attacked John. John did not go looking for war, and it was not his fault if he had to pay for a war that was thrust upon him.
It was the need to pay that brought the like of Fulk de Cantelu and Henry of Cornhill into John's favor.

 
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